MY THOUGHTS Weekly feature: Excerpt from original script

To keep the ending of The Gift(Buffy, Season 5) from leaking, there were several different scripts with slightly different endings circulated. Here is the aired dialouge and below is how the script for one alternate episode ends;

ANGLE: IN THE SKY

A rift opens and a huge dragon flies out, screaming

as it sails past the girls.

DAWN(cont'd): Buffy-

BUFFY: I don't care! Dawn, I won't lose you-

DAWN: You have to! You have to let me go! Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it'll never stop. You know you have to let me....

ON BUFFY

As she takes in Dawn's words, knowing it's true.

ON DAWN

As, slowly at first, she takes a few steps away from her sister, toward the end of the platform.

ON BUFFY

Who does nothing to stop her

ON DAWN AGAIN

A few more steps, faster this time, gaining speed until until she is running toward the edge of the platform.

ANGLE: ABOVE THE END as Dawn reaches it and SWANDIVES right out and down toward the ball of energy.

CLOSE ON: DAWN

As she starts down

CLOSE ON: BUFFY

As she watches, crying...

ANGEL: THE BALL OF ENERGY
As Dawn's body sails down into and disappears in a white light, causing the energy to go even wilder.

CLOSE ON: The group, as they look in vain to see what has happened.

CLOSE ON: DAWN'S FACE

As she floats in the center of the maelstrom, being hit with the equivalent of a million jolts of electricity-

BUFFY- unable to leave the platform....

DAWN-her eyes slowly closing...

THE ENERGY BALL-exploding and suddenly contracting out of existence...

Dawn disappearing with it.

CLOSE ON BUFFY'S FACE

BLACK OUT

END OF SHOW

This script, even tough it's a fake, might give the answer to the question; "What killed Buffy? Magic, heart attack, hitting the ground? Was it a mystical death or not?" I would say that death by electricity is a natural death, but since Buffy could be returned to the living, it's mystical, isn't it? Maybe the writers didn't think it trough(or maybe it's different in the real script, or it's mystical electricity).

You know, by this episode I had already (kinda) forgiven Dawn for being a brat earlier in the season. She'd found out she was a key, she'd lost her mom, yet over all she's been... nice. More mature. Likable even.

Okay, I still loathed her a bit, but I also felt sorry for her, you know? I wonder if I could have stayed mad if it was her that jumped instead of Buffy. She would have acted selflessly and brave(even tough her her wish to see Joyce/and or, make everyone around her stop getting hurt might have made her suicidal) and since she would be dead, we couldn't really whine about her, could we? The dead often get glorified.

But it's not exactly like she wasn't less brave and selfless just because Buffy jumped, was she?(Okay, if my sister wanted to jump instead of me, I would hopefully have tried to outrun her, but I assume that if given a second chance, Dawn would have tried to outrun Buffy, chock, fear, slayer-speed or not)

I think something many people forget when they discuss Dawn's maturity, is to add this scene to the equation. She was ready to jump. She might not have thought she deserved to live, she might have jumped another day on her own accord(although I don't believe that), but point is, she was ready to jump.

Dawn's a hero. I think we should remember that when we whine about her.